Muslim charity to feed London homeless people throughout Ramadan and 20,000 hot meals for UK rough sleepers in Manchester

Human Appeal, a Muslim faith-based charity, are celebrating the start of Ramadan today (Thursday 17th May) by sharing Ramadan with homeless people. Human Appeal will be funding Streets Kitchen, who feed homeless people on the streets of London for the entirety of the holiest month in the Islamic calendar.

To announce this initiative Muslim staff and volunteers from Human Appeal set up a kitchen on the pavement outside Camden Town underground station, with Streets Kitchen, and fed hundreds of rough sleepers throughout the night of Wednesday 16th May.

It is part of Human Appeal’s campaign to share Ramadan with the most vulnerable people in the UK. As well as funding Streets Kitchen throughout Ramadan they will be:

· Introducing an innovative new scheme to issue prepaid gift cards from the Co-op to homeless people and households with food insecurity, they are hoping to raise enough funds to issue the prepaid gift cards for 500 people across Greater Manchester· They will be providing of up to £80 per person to destitute people across Greater Manchester to pay for essential items to pay for their health and well being · Provide 20,000 hot meals for homeless people in Greater Manchester a partnership with Street Support

Samra Said, the UK Domestic Programmes Manager for Human Appeal said:

“For Muslims, Ramadan is about sharing and that is what we want to do with the people most in need in the UK this year. We are sharing Ramadan. We might be a Muslim faith-based charity, and most of our staff will be fasting throughout Ramadan, but that won’t stop us feeding those who aren’t fasting, feeding those who need food the most. Human Appeal are here for every human, regardless of religion, race, gender or sexuality. We don’t discriminate. We want to spread the joy of our blessed month with everyone and bring people together, in a world that is becoming increasingly divisive.”

Human Appeal launched their Ramadan campaign in Manchester on Monday 14th May in their home city of Manchester. In attendance were local community leaders from the Christian, Jewish and other faith groups, as well as the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham. At the event they fed 80 people who were homeless, had lived experience of homelessness or who were staff and volunteers for homeless charities.

Every winter Human Appeal also run their Wrap Up Manchester campaign, which in 2016 collected over 1,500 coats and items of clothing for rough sleepers and other vulnerable groups in Greater Manchester and in 2017 it collected nearly 2,600 plus an extra 23,000 in Glasgow, Birmingham and London. Human Appeal also raised nearly £28,000 for the victims of the Manchester Arena terror attacks last Ramadan through their Muslims for Manchester campaign and gave over £90,000 in aid to the victims of the Grenfell fire.

Ramadan is the busiest time of year for Muslim charities, where they expect to take 50% of their annual income in donations in the month of Ramadan alone. The event displayed how the different communities across Manchester can work together and how they can help achieve The Mayor’s pledge of ending roughing sleeping in the city. Human Appeal are a key member of The Mayor’s homelessness task force.

In Ramadan 2017, Human Appeal gave over £170,000 in aid to vulnerable people in the UK.